Modern word processors enable a user to readily create electronic documents. Many modern word processors include templates to facilitate the insertion of “document parts” which are typical structural elements found in a variety of documents. These typical structural elements include such features as cover pages, headers and footers, and the like. A user of a word processing application program typically selects a desired document part from a template of similarly styled parts created by a template author and then inserts the selected document part in the document. Unfortunately, the creation and insertion of document parts in modern word processors presents a number of drawbacks to both the template author as well as the end user.
One drawback associated with the creation of document part templates for use in modern word processors is that the template author generally must undergo the time consuming task of creating each document part from scratch utilizing various graphical software tools to design and format each document part. One drawback associated with the insertion of document parts in a document by an end user is that the end user must depend on template authors to design suitable document parts for insertion (i.e., the typical end user lacks the design skill require to design or modify existing document parts). Another drawback associated with the insertion of document parts by an end user is that the end user must typically perform a series of steps so that the document part will fit the size and layout of the document in which it is inserted. For instance, to insert a cover page a user may perform one or more of the following time-consuming steps: 1. Insert a page break at the top of the document; 2. Center the test vertically in the page by using empty paragraph markers so that the title is displayed correctly; 3. Increase the font size of the title; 4. Add empty space to push text to the bottom of the page where the author's name and date will be displayed; 5. Right align the text and make it smaller.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.